Infographic: Football Financial Crisis and the Fistful of Dollars

The infographic starts off strong, with two good examples of data visualization and a nice variety of color. (There is an awful lot of text under Football & The Money Men, though.) The League of Debt, however, is a color-coded list of numbers–it’d be so nice to see all these numbers as bar charts, stacks of money or some other sort of visual.

Club’s Main Source of Revenue is a great example of using data viz to really quickly convey information. Right away you see that TV and Broadcasting make up the bulk of the revenue. Same with the wage explosion–a really nice timeline and line graph in one, clearly illustrating the wage discrepancies. But again, under Best Paid Footballers, we get a list of numbers, with no visual way to compare who makes more, and how much more. The IG ends again on a strong note with a graphed comparison of the clubs that make the most money.

It seems that the design shies away from including “too much” data viz–no need! We’ll get through the IG a lot faster if there’s more of it. The other biggest problem is the text–Football & The Money Men is the heaviest spot, but The League of Debt could be trimmed, too. The huge size difference between the title and the text makes the eye just want to skip over “the fine print.”

Overall I’d give this IG a B-. It’s got great data viz when it’s there, but could use a little boost to make it even better. And if we could just boost the money-making power of more footballers and football clubs, maybe we could see some more Football Trophies too!